Joe Biden pays tribute to ‘American icon’ Ethel Kennedy after her death aged 96 – US politics live
Barack Obama to hit campaign trail for Harris this evening; Michelle Obama relaunches voter turnout drive
As former president Barack Obama is hitting the campaign trail for Harris this evening, former first lady, Michelle Obama, through her national, non-partisan voting initiative When We All Vote has relaunched Party at the Polls, the organization’s program to increase voter turnout.
In a news release announcing the relaunch, When We All Vote said that during the month of October and into November, the organization’s partners and volunteers will host nonpartisan celebrations near early voting locations across the country in order to “increase voter turnout and bring their communities together to cast their ballots”.
The parties are free to attend and open to everyone in the community, it added.
Key events
President Joe Biden has just been speaking at the White House about the federal response to Hurricane Milton in Florida.
You can read about that in our Hurricane Milton live-blog here:
Democratic vice-presidential candidate and governor of Minnestoa, Tim Walz, is scheduled to campaign in Wisconsin on Monday.
The Harris campaign said on Thursday that Walz will campaign in Green Bay and Eau Claire, and that this will be his fifth visit to the state since becoming the vice-presidential candidate.
This comes as a recent Quinnipiac university poll published this week showed Kamala Harris trailing Trump by two percentage points in Wisconsin.
Bernie Sanders will also be campaigning on behalf of Vice-President Harris.
Sanders will hold events in key battleground state Michigan, in Traverse City and Marquette.
The senator “will discuss the most pressing issues facing working class residents of the Great Lakes State. The Senator will focus in particular on the Harris campaign’s plans to lower costs for working families, protect Social Security, and expand Medicare.”
Bill Clinton hit campaign trail for Harris in southern battleground states
Bill Clinton is going to hit the campaign trail for Kamala Harris, focusing on battleground states in the south.
A spokesperson for the Harris campaign confirmed the news about the former US president and husband to Hillary Clinton on X, writing “The Harris campaign unleashes the Big Dog.”
Clinton will travel to Georgia on Sunday and later make a stop in North Carolina.
NEW >> The Harris campaign unleashes the Big Dog
Bill Clinton to hit the rural South for Harris this week, stumping in Georgia and eastern North Carolina, “going back to a kind of campaigning that he hasn’t done since before he became the ‘Comeback Kid'”https://t.co/DcZUSxUDJp
— Ian Sams (@IanSams) October 10, 2024
More tributes to the late Ethel Kennedy have begun to pour in, particularly from her famous family. Maria Shriver took to X to express her love for her aunt.
Shriver’s mother, Eunice Kennedy Shriver was the sister of Robert F Kennedy Jr, thus making her Ethel Kennedy’s sister-in-law.
Shriver called her aunt “a woman of deep faith”. Shriver, a journalist, was previously the first lady of California when she was married to actor and former California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger.
My aunt, Ethel Kennedy passed this morning. What a life she led. What a huge family she created and leaves behind. I’m so glad I was able to laugh with her this summer, to share memories with her. She was a devoted sister-in-law to my mother, a one of a kind aunt to me and my… pic.twitter.com/u5ruoc4vye
— Maria Shriver (@mariashriver) October 10, 2024
Biden calls Ethel Kennedy ‘American icon’, says she persevered through tragedy
In a statement, Joe Biden praised Ethel Kennedy as an “American icon” who “showed our whole nation a way forward” after the assassination of her husband, Robert F Kennedy.
“Ethel Kennedy was an American icon – a matriarch of optimism and moral courage, an emblem of resilience and service. Devoted to family and country, she had a spine of steel and a heart of gold that inspired millions of Americans, including me and Jill. We were blessed to call her a dear friend,” the president said.
He continued:
Ethel’s husband, Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy, was one of my heroes, inspiring an entire generation to make real that promise for all Americans. Together, they were guided by values that were the same as those my grandparents and parents taught me around the kitchen table: Everyone is entitled to be treated with dignity and respect. We each have an obligation to one another, to give hate no safe harbor, and to leave no one behind.
After his shattering death, Ethel showed our whole nation a way forward, turning pain into purpose and continuing his march toward civil rights and social justice, an end to poverty at home, and securing peace abroad — all while raising their 11 children. Four years later, when I lost my own wife and infant daughter, Ethel was always there for me and my sons. She helped us find strength and perseverance. She taught us how to channel grief into the service of a greater good.
You can read the entirety of Biden’s statement here.
The day so far
It does not look like Donald Trump and Kamala Harris will debate again prior to the 5 November election. Yesterday evening, the former president declared “THERE WILL BE NO REMATCH!”. In response, Harris’s campaign manager today said Trump was doing “a disservice to the American people”, and announced the vice-president would hold a live town hall in Pennsylvania on 23 October. Separately, Ethel Kennedy died at the age of 96. The widow of Robert F Kennedy, the Democratic New York senator and former attorney general who was assassinated while campaigning for the presidency in 1968, Ethel Kennedy later became a noted campaigner for human rights. Barack Obama remembered Kennedy, to whom he awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2014, as “an emblem of enduring faith and hope, even in the face of unimaginable grief”.
Here’s what else has happened today:
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Gateway Pundit, a rightwing website, settled a defamation lawsuit brought by two Georgia election workers who were targeted by conspiracy theorists after the 2020 vote.
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New polling finds Democratic candidates trailing in Montana, Texas and Florida’s Senate races. If the trend is confirmed, it will likely mean the GOP gains control of the chamber.
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Voters of Tomorrow, a youth advocacy group that has endorsed Harris, says it has hit a milestone of more than five million direct contacts with young voters.
Obama says Ethel Kennedy ‘touched the lives of countless people around the world’
Barack Obama, who awarded Ethel Kennedy the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2014, remarked on her passing, calling her “an emblem of enduring faith and hope, even in the face of unimaginable grief”:
Ethel Kennedy was a dear friend with a passion for justice, an irrepressible spirit, and a great sense of humor. She touched the lives of countless people around the world with her generosity and grace, and was an emblem of enduring faith and hope, even in the face of… pic.twitter.com/lTukrEl9hI
— Barack Obama (@BarackObama) October 10, 2024
Robert F Kennedy Human Rights released a statement remarking on the death of the advocacy group’s founder, Ethel Kennedy:
Harris campaign calls Trump’s refusal of second debate ‘disservice to the American people’
Kamala Harris’s campaign chair Jen O’Malley Dillon has hit out at Donald Trump after he said he would not debate the vice-president again.
“Donald Trump’s refusal to join Vice President Harris on the debate stage again is a disservice to the American people. They deserve to see the candidates side-by-side one more time before casting their ballots for one last look at their vastly different visions for America,” O’Malley Dillon said in a statement.
“After backing out of 60 Minutes and doing 27 straight interviews with conservative media, unfortunately it is clear Trump would rather cocoon himself in safe spaces and avoid real questions about his harmful plans and failed divisive leadership. Trump fears another debate where Vice President Harris would hold him accountable in front of tens of millions of Americans.”
O’Malley Dillon also announced Harris would participate in a live town hall organized on 23 October in Pennsylvania, a swing state vital for her chances of winning the White House.
Ethel Kennedy became known nationally across the United States in the 1960s, a period when her husband, Robert F Kennedy, served as attorney general and then a Democratic senator representing New York, before he was assassinated while campaigning for president in 1968.
After his death, she founded the Robert F Kennedy Human Rights advocacy group.
Here are some images of Ethel Kennedy and her family from years past:
The Guardian’s Robert Tait sums up the state of the presidential race for Kamala Harris in this new piece. While the vice-president and her allies have brought in a massive $1b in donations since she launched her campaign, all signs point to her being tied with Donald Trump in the state’s that count most:
Kamala Harris’s campaign has raised a record-breaking $1bn within 80 days of her becoming the Democrats’ nominee yet has failed to translate her cash advantage over Donald Trump into a poll advantage in the key battleground states that will probably decide the election.
The vice-president’s fundraising haul, first reported by NBC, dwarfs the $309m raised by Trump’s campaign by the end of August, and equals the amount brought in by Joe Biden for his entire 2020 campaign.
But Democrats’ joy over the bounty is being tempered by a lack of evidence that it is giving her the edge she will need in the battleground states to win enough of them to affect the election outcome in her favor.
In the latest warning sign for the vice-president, a Quinnipiac university poll published on Wednesday showed her trailing Trump by two and three points respectively in Wisconsin and Michigan – states which, along with Pennsylvania, Democrats have labelled the “blue wall”.
The survey showed Trump ahead by 48-46% in Wisconsin and 50-47% in Michigan. Harris has a narrow lead in most nationwide polls.
Harris maintains a three-point advantage in Pennsylvania, according to Quinnipiac, as Barack Obama arrives in the state to campaign for Harris. The former president will headline a Thursday rally in Pittsburgh, where he is expected to urge naturally pro-Democrat voters to turn out for the 5 November poll.
From the Associated Press, here’s more on the death of Ethel Kennedy, and the legacy she leaves behind:
Ethel Kennedy, the widow of Senator Robert F. Kennedy who raised their 11 children after he was assassinated and remained dedicated to social causes and the family’s legacy for decades thereafter, died on Thursday, her family said. She was 96.
Kennedy had been hospitalized after suffering a stroke in her sleep on 3 October, her family said.
“It is with our hearts full of love that we announce the passing of our amazing grandmother,” Joe Kennedy III posted on X. “She died this morning from complications related to a stroke suffered last week.”
The Kennedy matriarch, whose children were Kathleen, Joseph II, Robert Jr, David, Courtney, Michael, Kerry, Christopher, Max, Douglas and Rory, was one of the last remaining member of a generation that included President John F Kennedy. Her family said she had recently enjoyed seeing many of her relatives, before falling ill.
“She has had a great summer and transition into fall,” said a family statement, issued after she was hospitalized. “Every day she enjoyed time with her children, nieces, nephews, grandchildren and great-grandchildren. She was able to get out on the water, visit the pier and enjoy many lunches and dinners with family. It has been a gift to all of us and to her as well.”
Ethel Kennedy, widow of senator Robert F Kennedy, dead at 96
Ethel Kennedy, a noted human rights campaigner whose husband Robert F Kennedy was assassinated in the midst of the 1968 presidential campaign, has died at the age of 96.
Her grandson, Joe Kennedy III, confirmed her death:
It is with our hearts full of love that we announce the passing of our amazing grandmother, Ethel Kennedy. She died this morning from complications related to a stroke suffered last week. Along with a lifetime’s work in social justice and human rights, our mother leaves behind…
— Joe Kennedy III (@joekennedy) October 10, 2024
